Why Miranda Lambert made it in country music all started back in an East Texas school

A career that began by selling homemade CDs out of the trunk of her mother’s car is now so stable that people who hear the name Miranda Lambert can’t recall her unofficial point of entry to professional music.

We just know the name, because it’s been around for more than 20 years. The native of Longview and one of country music’s constants is now — and this doesn’t feel right — 40.

“I’m thankful people have cared that long for the message I had to say,” Lambert said.

Finding and keeping an audience in that business is usually a career-ender.

Lambert is now one of those rare performers who can start her own production label and touch a myriad of items beyond just a microphone and a guitar.

With the Academy of Country Music Awards scheduled for May 16 at The Star in Frisco, Lambert wisely picked this time to release a new single, “Wranglers,” and announce her affiliation with “Lone River” beverage company, which just announced its new blackberry flavor and redesign inspired by cowboys culture.

The irony is “Lone River” is a West Texas themed line, and Lambert is East Texas. They’re both in the same state, but on opposite ends of the earth.

“The cooler side, I’d say. All of my fellow East Texans will kill me for saying that,” she said. “I am obsessed with West Texas. Part of that draw for me is that I grew up in the East Texas pines, and it is so different than West Texas, which is mountains, and rocks and miles of nothing. I’ve been going to Marfa for eight years to write songs. I put out a record eight years ago called, ‘The Marfa Tapes’ with my buddies. I took two microphones out there and we recorded one song each, out on the hill or by the fire.

“It’s very raw. The music reminds me of the way you feel out there. It’s vast, it’s mysterious and it’s raw, and kind of untouched. It inspired so many songs.”

Lambert discussed the origins of her career, a backup plan that never existed, why these award shows actually do matter, and Dolly Parton, too.

Go back to when you were a kid in Longview. Was the goal to be a star and win awards, or was it to be a performer who made a living?

I’m not into the fame part of it all, I never was. I didn’t start because of that. I started writing songs at 17, and No. 1, it was the only thing that came naturally to me. Other things, like sports, were really hard, and I had to work extra hard to be good at things. Music came naturally.

When I started this journey I said I want to be a singer/song writer. I want to write songs that move people and I want to have a long career. That’s still the goal for me. I’m fortunate the long career part is happening as we speak. I’ve been doing this for 21 years now.

Knowing how hard it is to make it in your business, do you ever stop and ask yourself, ‘I can’t believe I did it,’ or do you not go there?

There are moments of both, and I think that’s healthy. I have a room in my house with all of my music stuff, my plaques and awards. And that’s great I have a place to display it; it’s not by my front door.

I am proud of it. When I was writing for my record, ‘Wild Card’ I put tapestries over everything in my music room. I was like, ‘I’ve done that. I want to see what else I can do.’

Acknowledging all of the hard work you put in is a great thing, but I want to push and be better and bolder and keep learning.

Is it true when you were 16 you played the ‘Johnny High Country Music Review in Arlington?’

I sure did. Some of my heroes played it, LeAnn Rimes back in the day. It taught me a lot. I am pretty shy, unless I know people well, especially as a kid. I had outgoing parents, so they talked for me.

Johnny High was my first time to put myself out there in front of the public. I learned a lot about performance there. How to hold your mic, and to open up to the crowd. Then I started playing honky tonks, but Johnny High was the start of me figuring out if I could be comfortable in front of people.

Back then did you have any experience that made you ask whether this path was the right one?

School was very hard for me. Now I know I am a creative. Now they have more programs for kids who learn differently, or are creative. I went to public school in East Texas, and I struggled a little.

I knew right off the bat college was not going to be for me. I didn’t have that kind of mind. My parents agreed. We had a sit down when I was a junior in high school, and I said I’m going to chase this country music dream with all gusto because I don’t have a backup plan.

College was not in the cards, and I like the testament to that because college is not for everybody. My brother went to Texas, he’s super smart, he graduated and he has a great career but I took a different path.

In 2001 you released an album independently, is that right?

Yes, we made it in Dallas. We made 3,000 copies and sold them out of my mom’s trunk. That’s old school.

Did it work?

Yeah. I am from the day of stapling posters to phone polls, and selling CDs out of my mom’s trunk. I am a little bit jealous of these guys who have all of these platforms now, it’s so much quicker.

The amount of work you have to put in is still there, but it’s in a different way. I didn’t grow up in the Twitter phase. I am glad it taught me a lot of grit and persistence, because you had to have it. There was no instant gratification.

In anywhere in your journey did anyone tell you, ‘No.’?

Yeah, and I am so thankful for them. Because ‘no’ makes you work that much harder. I am pretty feisty and strong headed so the more ‘No’s’ I got, the more I worked for what I wanted. That was very important.

When you listen to yourself when you were younger, in an effort to self critique and improve, do you hear any and ask yourself, ‘What was I doing?’

There are some I loved then and don’t know. Or I re-visit and fall in love with, or take out of the set list. I have been so particular about the art, because that’s all that matters. The glory and fashion don’t matter as much as the music.

I’ve pretty much spent my career making sure I don’t have albums full of filler, because I don’t listen to albums full of filler.

The ACMs are coming up. Does the artist need to win the award in any creative profession or is the award the fact that you can do this sort of job for a living?

The awards, I am so thankful for them, they do feel validating. Our awards are voted on by people in the industry, so when your peers say, ‘I see you, I hear you, and I love what you are doing,’ that feels really good because it’s such a boost of confidence to keep going.

It’s not about the award itself it’s about the recognition of I am working my butt off and you all see me, thank you and I appreciate it.

Right now in America Dolly Parton is the most beloved, can-do-no-wrong entertainer going. Why does everyone love Dolly Parton?

Because it’s authentic. She is a prime example of being genuinely herself, and being authentic. And she’s also kind, and that goes so much further than people realize. There is never day that you don’t hear Dolly say something positive even in a bad time, and I think we all need to take notes from that.